Nukualofa's busy

day is a sign of things to come

From a Nukualofa correspondent

On a recent Saturday, four over seas ships were anchored at Nuku alofa and the waterfront was a bustling hive of activity. Visitors from the ships laughed and bar gained their way around town, and the International Dateline Hotel did good international business.

White and majestic, the huge P and O flagship, Canberra, was anchored some 50 yards off the Vuna Wharf. Small craft bobbed over the waves ferrying the ship’s 2,000 passengers to the shore. Things could not have seemed more serene.

But on board the Canberra there was drama. Two divers, Mr. Jack Riechelmann and a Tongan assist ant, had been sent overboard with aqualungs to locate the cause of unusual noises and vibrations that had been noticed by members of the ship’s crew as the Canberra had sailed towards Tonga.

The trouble was finally located in the starboard propeller unit.

In four dives, extending over three hours, the two divers repaired several loose bolts on the rope guard and the outer bearing seal, forward of the propeller, and an other two bolts that had sheared off on the housing over the shaft.

"Vityaz" visit

When the unsuspecting, sun burned passengers rejoined the Can berra after a day’s sightseeing, all was well, and when Tonga’s Har bourmaster piloted the liner through the reefs in the late afternoon, he reported that the noise and vibra tions had completely disappeared.

Further out in the stream was the Russian research vessel Vityaz with its complement of 65 scient ists, both men and women. It was the first time on record that a Russian vessel had called at Tonga, and cabinet approval had been sought and granted before the visit.

A long, low, sleek vessel of 5,700 tons, the Vityaz, under command of Captain M. Sobolevsky, is on its 43rd oceanographic expedition into the Indian and South Pacific Oceans.

The scientific team is under the leadership of Professor Beerskov, head geologist at the Moscow Insti tute of Oceanology.

They set out with three main tasks in view: the study of the mag nesium and iron ore content of ocean floor nodules, the study of marine biology, and the sedimenta tion of ocean particles.

The new Tongan island on the Metis Shoal (P/M, April, p. 103) was described by the Russians as a rock outcrop measuring approxi mately 10-ft high and 100-ft across.

Their trip to the South Pacific, said one of the party, was made pleasurable by good food and good company.

Afloat at the Yellow Pier was the 75-ft, all steel, refrigerated cray fisher Ata, owned and skippered by well-known yachtsman and Sydney industrialist, Mr. Peter Warner. It was Warner who rescued the Tongan castaways on the island of Ata in September, 1966.

Crayfishing

At present fishing crayfish for the American market, Mr. Warner has as his crew the very castaways he rescued. They make a good crew, although two of them jumped ship at Auckland on the way north.

Such is his faith in these lads, how ever, that he placed S6OO with the Customs authorities for their fines and fares to Tonga.

Like the Russian vessel, the Ata called at Tonga’s new island on the Metis Shoal. Mr. Warner reported that all signs of activity had ceased.

Earlier, the King of Tonga had flown over the Metis Shoal only to find the island submerged. How ever, he ordered a diver to collect samples of volcanic rock from the Shoal. The diver found warm water in some places which sug gests that activity still exists in the area.

The other ship in port on that memorable Saturday was the Nor wegian vessel Thorsgaard which carries Canadian timber to the ports of Suva, Tahiti, Pago Pago, Apia, and sometimes Tonga and the New Hebrides. So popular is the trip that the 12 berths each trip are booked years ahead.

For Tonga it was a unique day a miniature, maritimje parade of things to come and proof that she has to prepare herself to meet the demands of the tourist industry already growing rapidly with regular and increasing flights from America.

• American journalist Julia Ed wards, on assignment in New Guinea, agrees with James Anderson (RIM, Feb. p. 50), that New Guinea's tourists are in greatest danger from white savages, not black. Here she dashes off a few paragraphs to PIM on her terrifying ex periences in the Port Moresby jungle.